Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle stands above the village of Corfe in a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England, on the route between Wareham and Swanage. William the Conqueror built the first fortification on the site in the eleventh century, and Henry I undertook major stone construction of the keep between about 1096 and its completion around 1105, making it one of the earliest castles in England built partly in stone rather than earth and timber, using locally quarried Purbeck limestone. The castle grew into three wards, an inner stone walled enclosure holding the keep, a western bailey, and an outer bailey, and it remained a royal stronghold until Elizabeth I sold it in 1572. During the English Civil War, Lady Mary Bankes defended the castle through repeated sieges before Parliament ordered its partial demolition in 1645, creating the ruins that survive today under the care of the National Trust.